Alain Robert – a lie in photos and song

ALAIN Robert usually has neither safety nor permission when he climbs the world’s tallest building. He’s scaled some of the biggest monuments to working in high offices: the Empire State Building in New York, One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, London, Shanghai’s Jin Mao Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. He often dresses as Spider-Man, which makes him look less daring than ridiculous. What Alain needs is to team up with Philippe Petit, his fellow Frenchman who walked on a tightrope between New York’s Twin Towers in 1974. If Alain can get him to the top, Philippe can walk the web.

PS: check out Hafdis Huld’s ode to Alain, Kongulo (Icelandic for “spider”), which includes the line: “You never see him in an elevator/It moves too slow — see you later.”